1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip antenna, and more specifically, to a chip antenna used for mobile communication equipment for mobile communication and local area networks (LAN).
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 10 is a side elevational view of a conventional chip antenna. The conventional chip antenna 50 comprises an insulator 51 which has a rectangular parallelopiped shape and consists of a lamination of insulator layers (not shown in the figure) comprising powders of insulating material such as alumina, steatite and/or the like, a conductor 52 which consists of silver, silver-palladium and/or the like and is provided inside of the insulator 51 in the form of a coil, a magnetic member 53 which consists of a powder of insulating material such as an amorphous metal powder and is provided inside of the insulator 51 and the coil conductor 52, and external connecting terminals 54a and 54b which are applied and/or printed at the drawing terminals (not shown in the figure) of the conductor 52 subsequent to heating of the insulator 51. In other words, the chip antenna 50 comprises the magnetic member 53 around which the conductor 52 is coiled, and which is embedded in the insulator 51.
In conventional chip antennas as described above, a magnetic member having a high permeability, such as an amorphous metal magnetic member, is placed in the coil conductor and embedded with the insulator in order to enhance the inductance value of the conductor, and by means of which the chip antenna has been miniaturized.
However, the value of the Q factor of the amorphous metal magnetic member deteriorates in a high-frequency region and the value of the loss factor increases by using a structure in which an amorphous metal magnetic member of high permeability is placed in the coil conductor and embedded with the insulator. For such reasons relative to the characteristics, conventional chip antennas are rarely utilized as antennas in high-frequency regions.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above-described problems.